1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of grass catchers for use with power lawn mowers and particularly for riding, self-propelled lawn mowers which have a bag forming system for collecting the grass clippings, and then sealing the bag and discharging the bag from the lawn mower, for repeating the cycle.
2. Descriptions of the Prior Art
A primitive patent issued in 1894 is the Storey U.S. Pat. No. 515,802 which shows a farm implement by way of a mowing machine having attachments for collecting the clippings of clover or short grasses as the cutter bar passes over the growth. These clippings are passed back to a suitable receiver from which they may be discharged from time-to-time at the will of the operator.
The Van Der Gaast U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,986 describes a push mower or a self-propelled mower for a walking operator, where there is a grass catcher hopper provided with a plurality of perforations and a swinging door which opens to discharge the catchings when an operating lever is manually operated. A second modification is shown with a riding mower having a grass catcher hopper with a rear door as well as a bottom door.
The Rhodes U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,631 shows a riding lawn mower having a chute for blowing the grass clippings back into a grass catcher assembly that is suspended from the rear of the mower. Plastic bags are located in two separate containers. The entire containers pivot to discharge the sealed plastic bags once they are filled.
The Myers U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,736 describes a riding lawn mower having an attachment on one side for baling the grass clippings in a tubular plastic bag forming system. There is provided an annular cartridge or reel of polyethylene which is a wound tubing known as "radially wound" tubing. This tubing is used in conjunction with a tubular auger housing which provides a positive loading action of the grass clippings into the box-like enclosure or housing for receiving the grass clippings. The plastic tubing is manually loaded within the enclosure. A stapler mechanism is furnished for stapling the end of the plastic tubing closed or sealed. The auger serves to fill the tubing with the grass clippings. Then the operator leaves the mower and seals the other end of the tubing and then the tubing is cut to permit removal of the filled plastic bag. A real problem exists with this Myers design if the auger is allowed to overfill the plastic tubing so that the bag cannot be closed and sealed.
The Jackson U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,977 describes a riding lawn mower that includes a grass catcher assembly supported from the rear thereof. A rectangular subframe has a plastic bag suspended therefrom so that the grass clippings may be blown into the bag. The subframe with the plastic bag attached is releasably retained in the main frame by means of a pivoted stop which may be moved to release the subframe and permit it, together with the filled bag, to be slid in a horizontal plane out of the main frame for discharging the contents of the bag.
The last patent is the Leighton et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,916,863 which describes an early plastic bag taping or sealing machine using self-adhesive tape which can be tightly wrapped around the end of the bag once the end has been twisted into a tight rope-like configuration.